In-store signing with artists Ivan Reis and Eddy Barrows!

Come by Forbidden Planet NYC and meet the talents behind many great titles, including Blackest Night and Nightwing!

Artist Boris Rasin’s Godzilla Does Right shows the big guy pitching in.  Even if hes not the best house painter, at least he gives it his best.

Godzilla Does Right is currently on view at NURTUREart as part of the group show Blood, Sweat, and Tears: the Work of Art and Tragedy.

Blood, Sweat, and Tears: the Work of Art and Tragedy, curated by Krista Saunders and Project Curate, a group of high school students.

The show is up from June 3 through June 24.

NURTUREart is located at 910 Grand Street in Brooklyn, NY.

The show is centered around the idea of modern natural disaster and renewal. The Godzilla piece takes the Japanese symbol of destruction and puts him to good use, fixing up the gallery with a somewhat sloppy paint job. The sculpture, made from insulation foam, expanding foam and other materials stands at 6’2″. The white paint Godzilla uses is glossier than the paint on the wall, creating the illusion of a fresh coat of paint. Being a little clumsy, he has a bit of white paint splattered on his hands and body.

MF Gallery 213 Bond St. (b/w Butler & Baltic) Brooklyn, NY

“B-HORROR” Group Art Show at MF Gallery

Opening Party Saturday May 14th 7-10pm

Lawrence Van Abbema, Bill Blood, Daniel Caspera, Nathaniel Groppe, Kirsten Flaherty, Annie Hunter, Moses Jaen, Drew Maillard, Greg Maillard, Michael Nirenberg, Angel “Mud” Perez, Lou Rusconi, Martina Secondo Russo, Frank Russo, Chad Savage, Scarecrowoven, Dan Scheckler, FX Tobin, & More..

MF Gallery: 213 Bond St. (b/w Butler & Baltic) Brooklyn, NY 11217 (917)446-8681 info@MFgallery.net

Horror is a popular genre because it helps us come to terms with the darker side of human nature. But the films represented in this art show were not always appreciated by the general public; most were made on a shoestring budget and some were even completely shunned by the mass media. However, thanks to their uniqueness and creativity, these B-Movies have developed a strong following in the outsider subculture.

Demons, Evil Dead, Frankenhooker, Street Trash, Deranged, Basket Case, Mother’s Day, Astrozombies, Hobo With A Shotgun, Dead Alive, Squirm, The Stuff, Maniac, Dr. Butcher… These are just some of the movies in the B/Underground Genre that inspire us to create our most horrific artworks.

Join MF Gallery and a slew of horror enthusiasts, as we pay tribute to our favorite movies through drawings, paintings, sculptures, and other works of art.

At the Opening Party on Saturday May 14th from 7 to 10pm, MF Gallery will be projecting a selection of our favorite Horror Movies of all time, accompanied by a Heavy Metal soundtrack. Refreshments will be served. Admission is Free and open to all ages.

“B-Horror” will be on view at MF Gallery until June 18, 2011, by appointment only. Contact Martina or Frank at (917)446-8681 or email: info@MFgallery.net to make an appointment to see the show. All of the art will also be available for viewing and purchasing online at:www.MFgallery.net

MF Gallery is located at 213 Bond Street, between Butler and Baltic Streets in the Gowanus area of Brooklyn, NY. Take the A or G to Hoyt/ Schermerhorn, (Exit at Schermerhorn and Bond. Walk South on Bond for 8 blocks.) the F or G to Bergen, (Exit at Bergen and Smith, walk 2 blocks east on Bergen. Turn right on Bond. Walk south on Bond for 3 blocks.) or the R to Union. (Exit at Union and 4th ave. Walk west on Union for 3 blocks. Turn Right on Bond. Walk North on Bond for 4 blocks.

For more information, appointments, to request high resolution images or to set up interviews, please contact Martina Secondo Russo at info@MFgallery.net or (917)446-8681.

What: Matt Jones Multiverse Opening Reception

When: Today Thursday March 31 6PM

Where: Freight + Volume 530 W. 24th Street (btw 10th and 11th Ave) Manhattan NY (DUH!)

What you should be wearing: Matt Jones Bars shirt, Rollins approved?

Matt is a good friend of mine (and a great customer for that matter) and this is his first solo art exhibit at the Freight + Volume gallery so I want everyone to make an effort to check it out.   Observing his art is like taking a trip into the Twilight Zone, if it was created by Stan Lee.  When I first met Matt his enthusiasm for comics and honest personality made him one of my favorite new faces to see in the shop.  He’s a total Wolverine nut and we have a mutual love of Black Flag so it was an instant friendship.

Matt Jones is now represented by Freight + Volume in New York.

MULTIVERSE, his debut solo exhibition with the gallery, opens March 31, 2011 with a reception-celebration from 6-8PM that night. MULTIVERSE runs through May 7, 2011.

FREIGHT + VOLUME
530 W. 24th St.
New York, NY
10011
PHONE: 212 691 7700

If you stop by FP we are giving away some pretty sweet posters for the show (while supplies last, obviously) so come on down and pick one up.

Oh, and go to the show… bub!

Today is Will Eisner’s 94th birthday!  Why is it that we celebrate a persons birth even after death?  Why not celebrate his death day?  Or better yet, lets celebrate an important day in the persons life.  Anyway, let us not have my questions rain on this parade, Mother Nature is doing  a good enough job on her own.  Weather aside, lets celebrate!

Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, Will Eisner is considered by most people to be the most influential and/or important person to ever grace the comic industry. You might also know him from a little book called The Spirit.  Here’s the short biography from WillEisner.com

WILL EISNER was born William Erwin Eisner on March 6, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York. By the time of his death on January 3, 2005, following complications from open heart surgery, Eisner was recognized internationally as one of the giants in the field of sequential art, a term he coined.

In a career that spanned nearly seventy years and eight decades — from the dawn of the comic book to the advent of digital comics — he truly was the ‘Orson Welles of comics’ and the ‘father of the Graphic Novel’. He broke new ground in the development of visual narrative and the language of comics and was the creator of The Spirit, John Law, Lady Luck, Mr. Mystic, Uncle Sam, Blackhawk, Sheena and countless others.

One of the comic industry’s most prestigious awards, The Eisner Award, is named after him. Recognized as the ‘Oscars’ of the American comic book business, the Eisners are presented annually before a packed ballroom at Comi-Con International in San Diego, America’s largest comics convention.

Wizard magazine named Eisner “the most influential comic artist of all time.” Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer-prize winning novel Kavalier and Clay is based in good part on Eisner. Also in 2002, Eisner received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Federation for Jewish Culture, only the second such honor in the organization’s history, presented by Pulitzer-prize winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman.

An authorized biography, Will Eisner: A Spirited Life by Bob Andelman, was published in 2005. A new biography, Will Eisner: A Dreamer’s Life in Comics by Michael Schumacher has been released in 2010 by Bloomsbury.

A film documentary about Eisner’s career, “Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist” from Montilla Pictures (Andrew and Jon B. Cooke), premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.

Back to the celebration…

Check out Google’s Eisner inspired page header.  Click it and your mind will be opened to all the Eisner you can handle.

Then if you feel like braving the rain, drop by MoCCA today for a screening of Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist followed by a panel with the film’s makers, Andrew D. Cooke and Jon B. Cooke moderated by Danny Fingeroth.

The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art – MoCCA - and The Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation are proud to announce that, as part of Will Eisner Week, 2011, they will be presenting a screening of the award-winning Documentary “Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist,” followed by a special panel with the film’s makers, Andrew D. Cooke and Jon B. Cooke. The panel will be moderated by Danny Fingeroth, MoCCA’s SVP of Education and co-curator of Will Eisner’s New York: From the Spirit to the Modern Graphic Novel exhibition, currently on view at MoCCA.

WHEN: Sunday, March 6, 2011
7-9 pm

WHERE: Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA)
594 Broadway, suite 401, New York, NY 10012

COST: General public: $5 / MoCCA members: Free

Space is limited, and reservations are required. To make a reservation, please call MoCCA at 212-254-3511, Tuesday through Sundays, 12 PM to 5 PM. For more information visit www.moccany.org

Click the DVD and you’ll be taken to a site that hosts the trailer.
If you can’t make it today, don’t fret… all week MoCCA is hosting Will Eisner’s New York: From the Spirit to the Modern Graphic Novel, an exhibit of Will Eisner’s New York inspired work, curated by Danny Fingeroth, and one of the coolest dudes in comics Denis Kitchen.

Do yourself a favor and stop by the store, or webstore for that matter and familiarize yourself with the work of Mr. Eisner.

Happy Birthday Will, thanks for everything!

From simple titillation to hardcore representations, comics have a long history of incorporating humor, scandal, fantasy and fun with sex. Originally used as a form of amusement and satire intended for adults, the societal perception of comics as wholesome entertainment geared toward children has made the inclusion of sexual content particularly jarring for portions of the general public.

In recent years, comics have transformed from entertainment to a potent and dynamic form of art, at times subversive, and worthy of academic investigation. Through the fusion of text and images, sex comics can tell a humorous erotic narrative with the use of familiar icons as well as construct sexual encounters, acts and personas that cannot exist in reality, constrained only by the illustrator’s imagination.

In showcasing the coquettish to the most sexually explicit “dirty drawings,” Comics Stripped will examine the history and cultural significance of the images, icons and illustrators that have entertained, educated (as well as equally misinformed) on the basics of sex and created a realm of sexual fantasy unlimited by the constraints of reality for generations.

The Museum is located at 233 Fifth Avenue (corner of 27th St.).

In honor of our exhibition of original art from the entire issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #50 by J. Michael Straczynski, John Romita Jr. and Scott Hanna, MoCCA presents an unprecedented roundtable discussion of the past quarter-century of all things Peter Parker with the editors who have helmed the title since the Reagan Administration! Axel Alonso (editor of ASM #50), Tom Brevoort, Danny Fingeroth, and MoCCA Trustee Jim Salicrup join current AMAZING editor Steve Wacker for the panel chat and audience Q&A. Moderated by MoCCA Trustee and current Spidey scribe Fred Van Lente.

MoCCA
594 Broadway, Suite 401
(btwn. Houston and Prince)
Thursday, February 11, 2010
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Admission: $5
Free for MoCCA Members

In addition to this MoCCA’s also running The Art of Archie Comics (both thru 2/28).  It’s only a few blocks from Forbidden Planet, so I encourage comic fans of all stripes to visit us both this coming Thursday.

Click here to pre-order signed comics.

“Spectrum” is on display at the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators. Featuring the best contemporary “fantastic” art from renowned fantasy, science fiction, horror, and surreal artists from around the world. September 1 through October 17, 2009. The Museum of American Illustration is proud to announce an exhibit featuring the top fantastic artists from around the world as seen in the annual SPECTRUM. Created in 1993 by Cathy and Arnie Fenner to showcase fantastic-themed art work, Spectrum is now the leading resource for art directors, art buyers, and fans of the genre. Selected pieces are chosen by top jurors in the field and images are produced in the full color book printed annually.

The SPECTRUM exhibit features a selection of over 120 works from both legendary artists and talented newcomers from the last four annuals. Divided into seven categories, the exhibit showcases multi-media works including original art in both traditional and digital medium, video, 3D, comics and graphic novels. Artists include Julie Bell, Kinuko Y. Craft, Eric Fortune, William Basso, Brom, James Gurney, Tony DiTerlizzi, Terese Nielsen, Yuko Shimizu, Michael Whelan, Donato Giancola, John Jude Palencar, Phil Hale and many more. The artwork will be on display from September 1 through October 17, 2009.

Spectrum 16 “Institutional” Silver Award Winner “Progenitus” by Jaime Jones, a badass piece of art for Magic The Gathering’s Confulx set, and hopefully on display at The Society of Illustrators’ Spectrum Exhibit.

The annual Spectrum antologies are consistently some of my favorite annual books, and never disappoint.  If you’re a fan of the art of the fantastic-  science fiction, fantasy, comics, what have you-  they provide a wonderful overview of the year’s best and brightest.  It’s also a terrific resource if you’re looking to being hipped onto new talent, as I’ve discovered countless new artists who’ve now turned into staunch favorites through the series.

In addition to being food for your imagination and a swell use of your free time, visiting Spectrum supports a good cause, as a portion of the admission proceeds will be donated to the SOI’s team in the “Light the Night Walk, ” an event benefitting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in memory of comic book artist, illustrator, and Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens, who tragically passed away last year following a bout with the disease.

Go forth and enjoy the visual feast for a good cause, folks.